Penn State has reached 'dollars-and-cents stage' in civil suits with many of Sandusky's victims

Penn State will not get full resolution of its civil exposure to those claiming sexual abuse at the hands of Jerry Sandusky this year.

But that goal is still very much on track for early 2013, according to attorneys for the university and several would-be Sandusky plaintiffs.

View full sizePenn State is working hard to settle with Jerry Sandusky's victims, which number 28 according to the university's attorney.The Patriot-News, file

University attorney Michael Rozen said negotiations have reached the dollars-and-cents stage in many cases, and some will advance to final stage negotiations in the near future, keeping alive hopes the university can avoid a lengthy siege of civil court actions from Sandusky’s victims.

“The goal is 100 percent peace,” Rozen said, while confirming there are no agreements in place with any claimants at this point.

Peace is precisely why Penn State retained the Feinberg Rozen firm this year.

A national leader in mediation efforts with a portfolio that includes administering victims’ claims from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the 2010 BP oil spill, the firm faces a daunting challenge: Help Penn State dig out from the layered roles it played in the scandal.

Penn State announced the day of Sandusky’s conviction in June that it wanted to “privately, expeditiously and fairly” settle with Sandusky’s victims.

Outside experts say the university is being smart in trying to avoid court.

“It gives them certainty,” said Tom Baker, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania law school. If successful, “they can put a dollar amount on the matter and be done with it, and they don’t have to keep reading about it in the newspaper.

“Everyone at Penn State would like to put this case behind them, and until it’s settled, it’s not behind them.”

Baker noted there are advantages for plaintiffs in a settlement too, as they can get their payments sooner, with the promise of confidentiality — and sometimes a little premium in the interest of peace. Penn State has said the university will disclose the total amount of damages awarded, but not individual settlements.

Though playing out in private conference rooms, the settlement talks have begun to add some new layers of depth to the Sandusky scandal, especially on the unanswered questions of when it started, and how many children were victimized.

Many advocates for sexual abuse victims have maintained it was unlikely Sandusky’s attraction to boys started with the throw of a switch in 1994, the earliest date covered by any of the 10 young men from which criminal charges were developed.

Sandusky, who has continued to profess his innocence from behind bars to any sexual assaults, has provided no clarity.

Sketchy details emerging from the settlement talks, however, raise a clear potential that Sandusky’s victimization of young boys ran concurrent with a longer portion of his Penn State coaching career than has been revealed thus far.

Rozen said in an interview with The Patriot-News that there are 28 individuals who have entered into settlement talks with the university, with one claim dating to the 1970s.

He declined to offer specific details about that earliest case, citing the private nature of the talks.

Penn State employed Sandusky from 1969 through 1999. After his retirement, he retained nearly complete access to football and other athletic department facilities. Prosecutors have maintained that Sandusky, now 68, made full use of that access in the grooming of his abuse victims.

Attorneys for several claimants reached this week generally had praise for Penn State’s efforts to settle.

“We don’t have a final settlement worked out yet,” said Michael Boni, the attorney for Aaron Fisher, the Clinton County teen whose 2008 allegations kicked off the final, successful Sandusky criminal probe. Fisher is the only victim to identify himself publicly.

“But both parties are working diligently and in good faith to settle this case, and we are cautiously optimistic that we’ll get there reasonably soon,” Boni said.

His praise for the early stages of the process was echoed by others.

“I think [Penn State has] a large appetite to settle these claims and put it behind them,” said Philadelphia lawyer Thomas R. Kline, who represents another of the eight men who testified against Sandusky during his June criminal trial in Bellefonte.

Kline called his early contacts with Feinberg Rozen a textbook example of civil negotiation, with the firm actively reaching out for information and then going through an evaluation against barometers such as:

• Was the person assaulted on Penn State property?

• Did the assaults occur before or after the 1998 and 2001 incidents in which — according to several internal and external investigations — there were missed opportunities to catch Sandusky?

• The length and duration of the abuse.

• Were there previous, truthful reports by the claimant to authorities? And, if not, what other information exists that tends to corroborate a potential victim’s story, such as witnesses or documents that could identify the person as having been in Sandusky’s company?

“They’ve touched every base before they just start to wildly throw out dollar figures,” Kline said.

Sandusky, the longtime defensive coordinator to legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, was sentenced to at least 30 years in jail following his conviction on 45 criminal counts of child sex abuse. Authorities said the assaults occurred on and off campus.

According to Rozen, none of the claimants’ cases have been rejected out of hand as a get-rich-quick attempt from a wounded university, but those evaluations are ongoing and “there are a few claims where that is a distinct possibility,” he said.

Rozen said one of his team’s major tasks is trying to “discern what claims are most credible and most deserving,” noting that does not necessarily mean that — as in criminal cases — victims must build a case that suggests beyond a reasonable doubt that Sandusky molested them.

But “there has to be more than somebody just coming in and saying: ‘Me too.’” If plaintiffs are able to provide any information that lends greater credence to their stories, that could lead to a higher valuation.

Penn State trustees in October assigned review of the settlement process to its legal sub-committee, a six-member group that was granted the latitude to steer Penn State’s overall bargaining positions and approve any proposed agreements.

The panel, with Penn State President Rodney Erickson, will also have to determine whether offering settlements in cases where there is relatively less evidence makes more sense than risking a court battle, and whether to proceed with any settlements in the event the talks reach agreements with some, but not all claimants.

Trustee Chairman Karen Peetz previously said the committee review was primarily intended to help Erickson and his team — who actually have the latitude to approve the settlements — be sure they are acting in the university’s best interest.

“Under the special circumstances surrounding these cases, and in view of the fact that the amount of the settlements individually and in the aggregate could be significant, some level of board oversight is appropriate and advisable,” Ms. Peetz said after the October meeting.

Erickson, who came under withering criticism for what some alumni see as a capitulation to the NCAA earlier this summer, has embraced the idea, she said.

It was not clear this week if Penn State will be pressing its own demands as part of any deal, like promises from victims to not enter into book or film deals about their experiences in order to contain Penn State’s long-term exposure to negative publicity from the Sandusky case.

Rozen declined comment, and attorneys for several claimants said they had not received any such requests to date, but they also noted such noneconomic considerations would typically be hammered out in the last stages of the process.

Penn State has said that it expects its liability insurances to cover most of the costs associated with the civil claims.